Day 9: What roses, relationships, and rich widows have to do with business

Three dozen roses

Last week was my wedding anniversary. You may have seen my Twitter update that I bought my wife three dozen roses. Of course she was super excited and I got to be a little bit more of her hero.

In light of the Customer Love challenge, I laughed later on imagining if the conversation had gone like this:

Me: Happy anniversary! I brought you something.
[I pull out the three dozen roses.] Her: OH! They’re beautiful! I love them!! Thank you so much, Baby!!
Me: I love being married to you and thought these would make your day.
[She reaches inside of her purse and pulls out her checkbook.] Her: How much do I owe you for them?

What a horrible response that would have been! Thankfully, this was NOT what occurred, nor (I’m sure) did the thought of monetarily reimbursing me ever cross my wife’s mind.

My gift was a way of giving her something she values and showing her how much I love her. To be sure, had she offered to repay me, it would have clearly indicated that she had missed the point.

I want to make sure we don’t miss the point with the Customer Love challenge.

DTR (Defining The Relationship)

Before all this talk of love starts to muddy the relationship waters, let’s do a little DTR. You know, that conversation where you make sure both sides agree where the relationship currently is and where it’s going.

Make no mistake, this is a business minded challenge.

However, the goal is not to make your customers just like you. It’s not to get them to agree to do business with you. It’s not even to get them to want to buy your product.

All of those things can be achieved (to varying degrees of success) through standard advertising practices. There are thousands of blog posts about how to do all of that.

You’re not here for that though.

This is a business relationship built on love.

You’re not here to scam the rich widow

You’re here to get your customers to fall in LOVE with you. That’s more than just doing business with you and way more than just buying your product. You could skip the love part if that was your goal.

And you’re not seeking false love because you’re not a scam artist. When you set your site on making your customers love you, it’s genuine. You’re not trying to woo the lonely rich widow in hopes of making off with her fortune before she knows what’s happened.

You’re a real person who is building a love based business relationship with other real people.

Why we’re choosing real love

Let me tell you why we’re choosing this love based business model.

• Real people in love can’t help but want to be around their loved one.
• Real people in love are constantly thinking of their loved one.
• Real people in love tell everyone about their loved one.
• Real people in love make being in love awesome.

Your goal is not that single transaction on day 29. It’s not a one-time spike in your bank account.

Your goal is to develop a long term relationship with your customer.

When you are successful with that, they can’t help but want to be around you. They think of you often and naturally tell others about you.

And best of all, they make being in business awesome!

Your challenge

Your challenge for the day is to give your customers your version of three dozen roses. Create something so wonderful and extravagant for them that it will knock their socks off. Give away something that you COULD charge for.

I understand that you are still in business, so I’m not advocating giving away your entire business or trade secrets. We are working towards a business goal of getting your customers to make a financial transaction. But before we get there, I am challenging you to give away something that your customers will value.

Give them a reason to fall in love with you.

Give away something valuable.

Remember, giving gifts is part of a loving relationship…which is our goal for this entire challenge!

PS – Some of you have done this in the past. Some of you have already started doing this as a result of the challenge. Awesome! Keep doing that and be encouraged to look for other ways to continue that practice. This love relationship is an ongoing thing. 🙂

Photo credit